When the AFL season proper gets underway in 19 days, a number of new personal player milestones will be set.
As well as the well-documented ones (number of games, number of goals, etc.) there will be some more obscure ones that rarely receive a mention.
Provided they all get to play in Round 1 (a huge assumption) players from Geelong (2), Hawthorn, Brisbane, Western Bulldogs (2), Richmond and St Kilda will all reach conventional milestones: Joel Selwood (Geelong) 250 games, Jack Gunston (Hawthorn) 150 AFL games (including 14 with Adelaide), Mitch Robinson 150 AFL games (including 100 with Carlton), Jack Macrae (Western Bulldogs) 100 games.
Stewart Crameri (if he manages a game at Geelong to add to his 57 games at Essendon and 42 games at Western Bulldogs) will also play his 100th game while Dean Towers (Sydney) and Tom Boyd (Western Bulldogs – including his nine games at GWS) will play their 50th AFL game – a milestone achieved by over 4,000 players already!
At a club level, Shaun Grigg will play his 150th game for Richmond (having previously played 42 games for Carlton) and Tim Membrey will play his 50th game for St Kilda, to add to his one game at Sydney.
Amongst the goal kickers, Jarrad McVeigh (Sydney) and Michael Walters (Fremantle) need just one goal to be the 23rd and fourth player respectively at their clubs to reach the 200 goal milestone.
Chris Mayne (Collingwood) needs only two goals to add to his 96 goals at West Coast Eagles and two at Collingwood to also join the elite group of 385 players ever to achieve this milestone, but his chances of even getting an opportunity appear extremely limited based on his form since his arrival at Collingwood.
Shaun Higgins – an extremely reliable goal kicker at his previous club, Western Bulldogs, where he kicked 128 goals and currently sits 43rd with Don McKenzie on the Bulldog’s all-time Top 100 goalkickers list – is also equal 93rd on North Melbourne’s all-time goalkicking list with John Burns, Xavier Tanner and Fred Metcalf, and needs just four goals to take his aggregate to 200.
Next article I will include those more obscure milestones that I mentioned.
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